How To Weave A Camel

This tutorial shows how you can weave a camel with plastic wire. This quick and easy weekend project belongs to the woven 3D animals series.

Things needed

We need 16 pieces of wire that are 2.75 meters each.

We will also be using tubes that are 1 cm long.

Method for weaving 3D camel

1. Weaving camel’s legs

Take two cut wire pieces at a time, fold them into half and make box knot with them. Here is a detailed tutorial for making box knot in case you don’t know how to weave it.

Place two knots near each other as shown below. Two wires will cross each other above the two knots and below the two knots. Make knots with wires crossing each other.

You will now have a diamond shape with 4 pairs of parallel wires.

Instead of making knots with wires that cross each other like we usually do, this time, make knots with wires that are parallel to each other.

Triangle shaped holes will be formed. A small cup shape will be formed.

After this, make knots with wires that cross each other and your leg will grow in height.

Each leg will be 6 diamonds tall. Weave 4 legs.

Place two legs near each other as shown below and make knots with wires that cross each other.

Continue weaving with wires that cross each other.

We have the forelegs and hind legs ready.

Place the forelegs and hind legs near each other as shown below and join them.

Four pentagons (red arrows) will be formed under each leg and the length of the body will be 3 diamonds long.

2. Weaving sides of the camel’s body

To weave the sides of the camel’s body, weave the wires that cross each other. Two triangles will be formed.

3. Weaving neck and head of camel

Choose one side and weave knots till there are 3 diamonds. There will be one pair of parallel wires on the left and right (red arrows).

Make a knot with the parallel wires on the left and it will form a triangle shaped hole. Repeat the same for the parallel wires on the right. Make a knot with wires coming out of these two knots.

Side view.

To form the neck, we need 8 wire pieces. So we will use two from each side.

Make a knot with the second wire from each side.

The 8 pieces of wire in front of this knot will be used to make the neck.

Starting with the two wires that are coming out of this knot, make knots with wires that cross each other and the neck will grow in length.

A hexagon shaped hole will be formed on both sides of the base of the neck.

The front of the neck will be four and a half diamonds long. The back will be longer as shown below.

Now we will weave the lower jaw region.

Make a knot with parallel wires marked by red arrows in the picture below. Make another knot with parallel wires marked with black arrows.

Finally join these two knots and this will form a pentagon shaped hole. The two white arrows in the picture below are pointing to the two triangle shaped holes that were formed in the previous step.

Now go to the other side of the neck. Again there will be two sets of parallel wires on both sides.

Make knots with parallel wires and it will form triangle shaped holes. Then join the two knots by making a knot with wires that cross each other.

Make knots with wires that cross each other till the head looks like this.

Two wires will come out of each knot. Weave each wire into the neighboring knot and cut it off. This exactly like the method with which we joined the cones in the Christmas star. Click the link if you have questions.

4.Weaving top of the camel’s body

Now it is time to add the tubes. Just like the front of the came, the back should also be 3 diamonds tall and have a pair of parallel lines on both sides.

Add 1 cm long tubes to the wires on both sides of the body and make knots with them and the wire coming out of the first knot

Side view.

Now join the left and the right sides of the body using jack fruit knot. A detailed tutorial for the jasmine knot/ jack fruit knot can be seen here.

As you can see, the knot that has been circled has been left untouched. The wires coming out of this knot and the first jack fruit knot will be used to weave the tail.

So bring the wires coming out of these two knots in position as shown below

These 4 wires will be used to weave the tail of the camel.

I have completed making all the jack fruit knots.

There will be some wastage of wire when weaving the camel. It cannot be avoided. The wires coming out of the jack fruit knots will be inserted into the body. If they are too long, they will be protruding outside the body. So cut them to 3 or 4 inches length before that. Then you can insert the wire ends into the body as shown below.

5. Weaving camel’s tail

Now it is time to weave the tail.

The tail will be a 4 stranded braid. Click the link if you want the tutorial for the same.

Tail is done. The two knots on the left are the camel’s ears.

6. Weaving camel’s ears and halter

Take 4 small pieces of wire and make 2 jack fruit knots and these will be used as the camel’s ears.

There will be 2 triangles at the top of the head. Pass the left ear through one triangle and pass the right ear through the other.

All wire ends of the camel’s ears will come out of the same hole near the jaw as shown below. This step will be slightly difficult as the triangle will be small. But do take the effort to do it properly.

For the halter, take 2 wire pieces that are thrice the length of the halter that you plan to weave. Pass the two wires under the knot as shown above.

The halter is also woven just like the tail as a 4 stranded braid. Bring the 4 wires in position as shown below first and then weave the halter.

(In the picture above, you can see a closeup of the mouth and how the wire ends have been woven into the neighboring knots.)

While weaving the halter, include the wire ends of the ears as well. This will anchor the ears in position.

A rubber band will prevent the halter from unraveling and it will also hold it in position after you push the ends into the body of the camel.